Four Winds students will head back to school next month to a brand new building – one powered by what’s probably the biggest solar array in town.
Morinville Public and Four Winds Public students got an early start on Christmas break Dec. 13 so crews could move hundreds of desks and boxes over to the new Four Winds Public School building at 545 Grandin Drive.
Four Winds vice-principal Dan Stephen gave the Gazette a tour of the building Dec. 12, which students will see for the first time Jan. 6.
Four Winds officially opened in September, but as the actual Four Winds building was under construction then, its 362 students had to share a building with Morinville Public. That meant cramming about 900 students into a place meant for 450.
“It’s been very cramped and crowded,” Stephen said, and the two schools have had to share the gym, which has made for some chilly outdoor phys-ed classes as of late.
Construction of the new $19-million Grade 5 to 9 school is now nearly complete, with crews applying the last bits of paint and siding and sweeping up drywall dust this week.
It’s a super exciting time, Stephen said.
“It’s nice to see everything we’ve been thinking about come to fruition.”
School of nature
Stephen said the school’s colour scheme was based on a photo of a mountain landscape, with lots of greens, blues, greys and cedar.
This is most obvious in the front lobby or agora, which will serve as a gathering place for students and assemblies. Here, a vast cerulean staircase tumbles down from the second floor past slate-covered walls.
“The idea is that it’s like a waterfall coming down from the mountains,” Stephen said.
Next to the waterfall stairs is another sign of the school’s connection to nature: a big screen showing live readings from the school’s solar array. Despite being covered in a light dusting of snow, the array’s cobalt-blue panels (which cover most of the roof) had produced 152 kilowatt-hours of power and prevented some 3.6 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions after just one day of operation, the big screen showed.
Morinville town chief administrative officer Stephane Labonne said the Four Winds solar array is likely the largest active array in town, as its closest competitor – the one atop the town’s 48-unit Homeland Housing project – is still under construction.
The school also has a table-sized solar panel mounted on the balcony next to the Audri Kowalyk Science Lab. Stephen said students will be able to move this panel around as they experiment with solar energy.
The solar panels are one of many environmental features in the school, such as LED lights and compost and recycling bins in every classroom. The school has been built to a LEED Silver standard (as have all provincial buildings since 2006), which means it should use 45 per cent less energy than average.
Four Winds students will be able to rock out in the school’s band room, which features two soundproof practice rooms and pyramid-shaped sound baffles on the ceiling.
The school’s gym features a full-sized basketball court, gender-neutral washrooms and change rooms, and the school’s fiery new firebird logo.
The halls have many windows for natural light and a multitude of common areas. Classrooms can spill into the halls by raising their garage-door walls.
Some rooms feature floor-to-ceiling walls that can be slid aside to combine classrooms for collaboration or doodled upon as whiteboards. Others have gigantic touch-screen displays that teachers can control with their smartphones or fingertips.
Stephen said he was personally excited by the school’s dance studio, which features floor-to-ceiling windows and looks out at Grandin Drive.
“It’s a great space with lots of light,” he said, and can be divided in two to serve as a fitness space.
What’s next
Still to come are the Thelma Chalifoux outdoor classroom and community garden, the gym’s video wall and the school’s playgrounds.
Speaking to Morinville town council Dec. 10, Four Winds school council spokesperson Jennifer Anheliger said the school would have two playground areas with poured-rubber bases. One would be more kid-oriented and sport a 20-foot-tall climbing structure with a slide, while the other would be an all-ages fitness park with obstacle-course type equipment.
Anheliger said the playground was backed by a $250,000 provincial grant and $30,000 from the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (which would help pay for the rubber base). The school council hoped to fundraise $10,000 and get $60,000 from the town.
Students will have a pancake breakfast and go on scavenger hunts to get to know their new home Jan. 6, Stephen said. The school will likely be home to 600 students in about four years.
Visit www.fourwindsschool.ca for more on the new school.
